Almost No Hope
by onlycertainships
Summary: The Mystic Falls gang decided to take a little vacation to get away from all the chaos that had happened lately. But someone on the plane was not who they said they were and the plane ends up crashing in the water next to a mysterious island. And when something horrible happens, it will bring Stefan and Elena closer than ever... Will they all survive? Rated M for future chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Almost No Hope**

**A/N: Hey guys! So this is my first complete story, I've written little one-shots before, but never a full story. This will be very loosely based on Lost, but you didn't need to have watched the show to understand this story. This will be a Stefan/Elena story even if you don't see much of it in this chapter. Don't worry, I'll get there. Anyways, read up and I hope you enjoy!**

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to embark on an adventure, a much needed one at that and we can't be late. Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Caroline said full of excitement. She was being her normal control freak, planner self. That was coming quite in handy at the moment actually, seeing how everyone in the Salvatore boarding house was running extremely late.

"Care, we've been ready for the last thirty minutes now. I don't see what's taking them so long. Damon and Elena are obviously fighting per usual, but what's taking Stefan so long? I know he's not taking this long to decide what outfits he's going to bring." Bonnie said dramatically. Caroline didn't respond, she just kept pacing the living room back and forth. Bonnie was not a very patient person, she could only wait for so long. She and Jeremy had been packed and ready to go since last night, she didn't see why the others couldn't do the same. Jeremy was starting to get antsy, like a little child. He kept on shaking his leg which in result was shaking the table Bonnie and him were currently sitting at.

"Jeremy! Will you cut it out and sit still for five seconds?" _You'd think he would be more patient, since I made him wait three months for sex and all, _Bonnie thought. He started giving her those wounded-puppy dog eyes, what he always did when she snapped at him. Giving in, she placed her hand over his, "I'm sorry. We're both not being very patient right now. I just really want to get going already. I mean, don't you? We're going to Australia, Jeremy, that's kind of a big deal." Jeremy smiled at her and said, "I know, Bon. I'm getting impatient too, but we'll leave soon. If we don't leave in the next ten minutes, I'll personally go referee that death match we all know Damon and Elena are having upstairs and you can go drag Stefan away from whatever he's doing, probably fixing his hair." Bonnie just laughed as a frustrated scream came from the corner.

"This freaking hotel can't get anything right! I booked us to check into our rooms at 5:00pm and somehow the stupid manager mixed it up and now we can't check in until midnight! What the hell are we supposed to do in Australia until midnight?" Caroline huffed, _apparently I'm the only one in the world who can plan a damn thing correctly, _she thought.

The clicking of heels was heard coming down the stairs. That could only be one person.

"Oh no," they all simultaneously said.

Strutting down the stairs like she owned the world, Katherine looked at the group like they were beneath her. Even though she was human now, she hadn't lost her confidence. "Oh, yes. That's right children; the cute one is coming on your little trip. You should all be grateful that I'm even gracing you with my presence." Flipping her hair, she walked over to the couch to sit down.

"Who the hell invited you, Katherine?" Said an exasperated Caroline. She was already as stressed as she could get, she didn't need Katherine Pierce of all people coming along to ruin her vacation. Although, she did think that she would provide for some humorous entertainment here and there.

"That would be me." Stefan stood at the top of the stairs, afraid of the controversy he would have to face by inviting Katherine on their trip.

Caroline threw her head back in frustration. "Seriously? Come on, Stefan. This is Katherine we're talking about here." From the corner of her eye, Caroline could see Katherine sticking her tongue out at her.

"You all know that she's human now, she needs to be protected. There could be anyone out there looking for her right now and we need to make sure they don't find her." Stefan gave them a stern, parenting look that said deal-with-it-she's-coming.

Caroline, Bonnie, and Jeremy all grunted.

"Fine, whatever." Caroline sighed. "But Katherine, I swear to God if you ruin my trip and prevent me from basking in the Australian sun, I will kill you." Ending with a long breath, she turned on her heel to leave the room.

Katherine snorted in amusement. She yelled back, "You do realize that you're a vampire right? You can't actually bask in the sun. Well, you could try taking off your daylight ring, that could work. You'd get a real nice tan then!" She smirked, leaning back on the couch with a smug look on her face.

"UGH!" Caroline grunted from the hallway.

They were all getting really impatient now. Damon and Elena still hadn't came downstairs.

* * *

A vase flew by Damon's face. "You are such an asshole! You are seriously refusing to go on this trip just because Stefan is coming?" Elena was fuming. So what if Stefan was coming? They were friends. How could they not be after all they had been through together? Damon knew they were friends, he'd known that all along and he suddenly had a problem with it as soon as this trip came up.

"No, Elena. I said I don't like it that he's coming. Of course I'm still going. But I just feel like lately you've been pulling away from me and… running in his direction." His voice was full of hurt. Of course Damon had noticed for the past month or so that she had been spending more time with Stefan. At first, he reasoned in his head they were just friends. They lived in the same house; they couldn't just ignore each other. Soon, he was waking up in the middle of the night to find that she was not there next to him. She was downstairs talking to Stefan. He'd listened in on one of their conversations one night. They talked about everything. Life, love, interests; everything that Damon and Elena didn't talk about.

Elena was silent. It was true; lately she had been spending more time with Stefan. She'd been wondering often what would've happened if she had never been sired to Damon. Honestly, and she'd never admit this, she truly believed she would still be with Stefan. And maybe it would have stayed that way. Her and Stefan. Forever. An eternity.

"Elena?" Damon spoke in a weak voice, becoming frantic. "Do you even love me anymore?"

She froze at his question. Did she? Did she still love Damon? Of course she did. Did she love him the same way he loved her? Elena was starting to question herself on that. "Of… Of course I do, Damon. Can we please just go on this trip and then we can sort all of this out when we get back?"

In that moment, Elena saw clear and utter pain on his face, but there was another thing she saw. She saw him giving up. Plain and simple, he was giving up. They both knew that she still loved Stefan, but neither of them wanted to say it out loud. They were going to go on this trip and either act like nothing happened or ignore each other, but they were going to put off their problems. This vacation was happening to get away from all the chaos and that is what they were going to do. But in their hearts, they knew the reality. It was over for them.

"Sure. Let's just go." And with those four words, Damon's walls were back up. Elena knew that he would shut out everyone and not allow himself to care from then on. It needed to be done though. She couldn't go on letting him think that everything was okay when it wasn't.

Nothing was okay. It hadn't been for awhile.

* * *

Once they were all finally ready, they headed to the airport. They arrived to find that they were going to be taking a private jet. No surprise there, Caroline always had to go above and beyond. "Nothing, but the best for my friends," she said.

"Don't get me wrong, Care. This is really great, but is it really necessary?" Bonnie asked. She was always the one who worried about money. She probably didn't realize that Caroline compelled the airline to let her use the jet. She wasn't going to tell Bonnie that though, since she usually frowned upon vampires using their abilities to get what they wanted.

"Oh Bonnie, this trip is going to be great, so of course I had to make every part of it as glamorous as you are," she said sarcastically. Bonnie made a certain hand gesture towards her, but it wasn't a thumbs up. They both laughed.

"Alright, alright. Break it up Barbie one and two. Let's go," Katherine said. She sounded irritated and tired. Probably one of the perks of being a new human.

The seven of them piled into the jet, settling into their respective seats. Stefan went with Katherine, Bonnie went with Jeremy, Elena went with Caroline, and Damon was all by his lonesome. Stefan noticed this, but didn't say anything. _Why is Elena not with Damon? _Stefan thought. Actually, everyone thought that was weird. Caroline wanted to ask Elena what was going on, but with all these damn vampires on the plane it was going to be hard for her not to be overheard.

Soon, their pilot came out and introduced himself.

"Welcome aboard, everybody, my name is Boone Carlyle and I'll be your pilot today. Your flight duration will be roughly twenty hours and we should be experiencing a smooth flight for the time you will be here. We are about to take off so if everyone could buckle their seatbelts and stay there, that would be great." Boone was about 5'11 with sandy brown hair. He spoke in a rough, deep voice and had a bit of scruff on his cheeks. His face was handsome, good cheekbone structure, and quite frankly Caroline and Katherine were checking him out not-so-discreetly.

"Thank you," purred Caroline and Katherine at the same time. They sharply turned their heads to each other and, oh boy, if looks could kill, well, they would both be dead. Caroline had just broken up with Tyler a few weeks ago so of course she was on the rebound, but Katherine was just naturally flirty.

Bonnie and Jeremy were in the corner snickering like little children, Stefan was trying to hide his smirk from Katherine, Elena looked downright depressed, and Damon was clenching a glass of scotch in his hand so hard that he could almost break it.

With that, Boone left and went back to the cockpit, giving Caroline and Katherine a pretty good view.

"Damn," Caroline said, fanning herself.

"That man has an ass you could bounce a quarter off," Katherine crudely said. They all gave her a look, even Damon. "What? I'm just saying." She shrugged and looked out the window as the plane was about to take off.

All of them buckled in, getting comfortable when the familiar rumbling of the plane started. The engine droned to life and the jet started moving towards the air strip. At the air strip, it stopped, and then started up again, gradually gaining more and more speed until it was taking off into the sky. Oddly enough, none of them were scared of flying, so it had been a fairly calm atmosphere until about midway into the flight.

Damon was wallowing away in self-pity, drinking his scotch, when he overheard something a little suspicious. The only two stewardesses on the plane, whispering.

_"When do you think he'll do it?" _The blonde one said.

The other looked anxious, like she was waiting for something to pounce at her. _"I don't know. But they've got to sleep at some point right? He could do it then." _She said in a quick, hushed tone.

_"But what about the humans? What if they fight back?" _Said the blonde, nervously tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

The other one quickly looked around and Damon jerked back to his scotch, going unnoticed. _"It doesn't matter. He'll sedate them or something. Don't worry, Judy. Boone has got this covered."_

That's where Damon tuned out. _Boone? _He thought, _isn't that the pilot guy? What the hell are they talking about?_

Deciding he'd had enough their whispering, he begrudgingly got out of his seat and started towards the stewardesses. As soon as they saw him coming, they went stark white. It was like all the color had drained out of their faces. That's when Damon knew something was wrong.

"Hi, ladies. Whatcha talking about?" He said menacingly.

It looked like the blonde one, Judy was her name, was going to faint. The other one spoke up. "Um, nothing sir. Could you maybe go back to your seat? We're experiencing some, um… turbulence."

"Turbulence? Strange, I don't feel anything," he said, turning up the theatrics. "Just like I won't feel anything when I rip your vocal chords straight from your throat if you don't tell me what you were talking about." They both gasped, the blonde even started shuddering.

Damon pushed the other one against the wall. "What's your name, dollface?"

"B-b-brenda," she stuttered out, her brown hair starting to glisten with sweat under the pressure.

"Well, Brenda," he said. "If you don't tell me what your little pilot, Boone, is cooking up in that cockpit of his, I just might have to kill your friend Judy here. And when I kill, it isn't fast, or merciful." Damon started walking toward Judy, slowly, but frighteningly. "You've got about three seconds."

"One…" He closed his hand around Judy's throat, not too tight, but not comfortable either.

"Two…" Damon's vampire face appeared, his fangs ejecting. He turned his head to show Judy his face. Judy was about to scream, but he clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Thr-" He was cut off by a something being stabbed into his shoulder blade. Vervain. He was suddenly grateful to Stefan that he had been making him drink vervain every day now. He looked back and saw Boone, the pilot, standing over him with a triumphant smile and a needle in his hand. Damon pretended to play wounded, so he could strike back at the right time. "You're a vampire hunter?" He said, making his voice croak to be convincing.

"That's right I am. And I will kill every last one of you on this plane if I have to." Boone smiled maliciously.

"Well," Damon said. "I don't think that's gonna happen." He jumped up and quickly tore into both of the stewardesses' throats until they were drained of blood. When he looked up, Boone just stared at him in shock and surprise. He obviously had no idea that the vervain would have no effect on Damon.

"Surprised?" Damon said. "Well you should be." He dove at Boone with all his vampire strength, knocking him over and started feeding on him. He sucked him dry until he heard the sound of a gun cocking behind him. The co-pilot. Damon leapt for the gun and ferociously ripped the co-pilot's heart from his chest.

"Oops," was all Damon said. He smiled satisfactorily, proud of himself for getting rid of the problem. He walked back out to his seat, completely forgetting he was covered in blood.

"Damon, oh my god! What happened?!" Exclaimed Elena, rushing to his side to help. _Hmm, she actually cares, _he thought.

Stefan was also at his side, quicker than lightning. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Oh everybody hush," Damon said with a roll of his eyes. "Turns out the whole crew were in on some freaky exterminate-all-the-vampires plan. Don't worry though, I killed them all." He smiled, showing the blood all over his teeth.

Caroline gasped. "But Damon-," she was cut off.

"But nothing, blondie. I solved the problem, all by myself. It's all good."

"Damon what-"

"Caroline, it's done. Over. Finished. Can we please not-"

"DAMON!" She yelled.

"What?!"

"Who's piloting the plane?" Caroline shrieked.

For once, Damon was out of words. Maybe killing both the pilots wasn't exactly a good idea. "Um, well, you see… no one, I guess?" Before Damon could even get his sentence out, the plane lurched forward and everyone slid down the front.

Stefan started crawling toward the cockpit.

"Stefan!" Elena shouted. "What are you doing?"

"I have to try and do something or this plane is going down, fast!"

He made his way to the pilot's chair. _Shit, what do I even do here? _He thought. Stefan had never piloted a plane before. How in the hell was he supposed to guide them to safety? He didn't know, but he had to try. He started pushing buttons that he thought would maybe help, but it turned out they did the opposite. The airplane started shaking immensely and Stefan knew they were doomed. He looked below the plane and his worst fears came true. If they were crashing, they were going to be crashing into the ocean. _How convenient, _Stefan thought sarcastically.

The plane was starting to decrease in altitude and they were all in a panic. Stefan had to do something. No one else was taking the lead, so it looked like he was going to be the one giving orders. "Everyone get in a seat!" He shouted over the noises of the rumbling plane. "Buckle your seatbelt!" He shouted yet again. It was hard for some of them to get a seatbelt on with the extreme turbulence they were experiencing, but soon everyone had their seatbelt on.

"Everyone just hold on!" Stefan yelled. He too was nervous, but he also had the people that he loved to think about. Jeremy, Bonnie, and Katherine, the fragile humans he felt responsible for. Then Caroline, his best friend, the one person he could talk to about anything. Damon, his brother; They may have gone through hardships, but he still loved him. He didn't want to see anything happen to him.

And Elena. The love of his life. Stefan couldn't imagine a world without her. A world without her was like living without breathing. His breath quickened at the thought of losing her. He _had_ to protect Elena. If anything were to happen to her, his whole world was lost to him.

The plane's shaking was becoming too radical and the oxygen masks popped out from above. Jeremy, Bonnie, and Katherine put them on. It was useless to the others, they were vampires; it didn't really matter if they could breathe or not.

All of the sudden they were spinning, no, the plane was spinning. The left wing was on fire until it abruptly broke off, along with the tail of the plane. They were rapidly declining in altitude and everything in the plane was being sucked out the back. If they weren't buckled in, they all would've been drawn out the back of the plane by now. They were plummeting to the deep, blue abyss of the ocean and there was nothing they could do about it.

Stefan looked back at Elena and he knew that this could be the last time he ever saw her face, so he had to say it now. He mouthed the words "I love you" to her. He knew she might not feel the same way, but she nodded tearfully and grabbed his hand. He then looked at Damon who looked like he was ready to embrace death as a welcomed friend. All things that Stefan ever did wrong to his brother ran through his mind at that moment. He wished he could have taken them back right then. He'd do anything to take them back. Lastly, he looked to Caroline. She was on the verge of tears, but dammit, she was still going to hold it together for everyone else. She gave him a small fearful smile and grabbed his free hand.

The plane staggered forward and the nose caught on fire. Everything shook with ferociousness and everything was ablaze. Damon finally took a look at his brother.

"Stefan, I'm sor-"

Then the water flooded in.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm baaack! Thank you guys so much for reviewing, they seriously made my day. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I'm a huge procrastinator. **

**I won't do this all the time, but I really only listened to a couple songs while writing this (minus some certain parts) so I thought I'd recommend them. This - by Ed Sheeran and We Don't Eat - by James Vincent McMorrow. They really helped me write some of the more emotional parts.**

**Also, this story is unbeta'd, so sorry for any mistakes!**

**Anyways, I hope you all enjoy! Feel free to leave me a review telling me what you would like to see in the next chapter - I could always use some inspiration. :)**

Darkness. Everywhere. The plunging abyss of the deep blue ocean left barely any light to be seen.

Debris from the plane was swirling everywhere. A few lights from the plane were flickering on and off. Stefan awoke and tried to take a breath, but it was no use.

The whole plane was flooded with water.

He quickly looked around to see if he could find anybody. Elena was behind him, still strapped into her seat beside Caroline. They were both unconscious. Now he was in a panic. Stefan wanted to get Elena out of there immediately, but he knew she would want him to get Jeremy and Bonnie to safety first. He also had Katherine to worry about.

He abruptly undid his seat belt and swam around the cabin of the plane looking for the others. There was just one problem. They weren't there. _Okay. Stay calm,_ Stefan thought. _Maybe they got out._

For then, there was nothing he could do about them. He shifted his worry back to Elena and Caroline, the thought of his brother drifting through his mind. Damon hadn't been seen either. _He probably got out too, he's capable of taking care of himself,_ Stefan thought. There was a lingering doubt in the back of his mind though. He pushed the thought aside and focused on getting Elena and Caroline out of their seats.

He undid Caroline's seat belt, grabbed her hand and moved over to Elena. The latch on her belt was jammed, so he tugged on it and it came undone. Elena woke with a jolt, frantically looking around. She saw Stefan and started to panic.

Stefan placed his hand on her cheek, giving her a short nod. His emerald eyes told her that everything was going to be okay. That she was safe now that he was there. Elena sank into the feeling of his hand resting gently on her face, something she hadn't felt in a long time. She nodded back. She was ready to get out of this death trap of a plane.

Gripping on tight to Caroline and Elena's hands, Stefan searched for a way out of the plane. For a few seconds he lost hope until he saw Elena pointing to the side door that was no longer attached to the plane. He quickly swam out the door and into the open ocean. He was about 200 meters away from the surface.

It's not that he needed to breathe to survive, but Stefan was starting to have flashbacks to when he was locked in the safe deep in the quarry. He had just gotten over his PTSD; he definitely did not want that resurfacing. Starting to panic, he looked over at Elena and saw that she was watching him with certain worry, something he hadn't seen her direct at him in a while. With her looking at him like that, he knew he could overpower anything in that moment. Keeping that thought at the forefront of his mind, he swam as fast as he could to the top making sure Elena and Caroline were close to him.

* * *

Breaking through the surface of water, he took a gulp of fresh air. The air was warm around him and so was the water. They had to be somewhere tropical; the plane couldn't have gone that much off course from Australia.

"Elena? Are you okay?" He said, needing to know if she had been hurt.

"I'm fine, but Caroline hasn't woken up," she said. "Why hasn't she woken up yet, Stefan? And where's Jeremy and Bonnie? Stefan, what if they're hurt? Or worse?!" Elena sounded like she was about to break down. It was understandable. After all, they just went through a plane crash.

Stefan pulled her close to him looked her in the eyes. "Elena, I need you to look at me, okay? Just focus on my eyes," he said. "We will find Jeremy and Bonnie. Caroline will wake up. Everything will be okay, Elena. I promise you, everything will be okay," he breathed out. She was calming down, her breath slowing as she focused on him.

They hadn't looked at each other like that in a long time. That look that made them seem like they were the only two in the world. That look that said nothing else mattered as long as they had each other. That look that made them feel safe.

Elena broke their stare to take in their surroundings. When they'd first came up she'd seen nothing, but the open ocean. Now, she spotted an island in the distance. She could've sworn that wasn't there before.

"Stefan… did you see that island before?"

"No, I didn't. We were distracted though, it was probably there the whole time," he said with an amount of uncertainty in his voice. "Let's get to the shore and then we'll figure everything out, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Elena said. She was still suspicious though.

They underestimated the distance to the shore. It was about an hour swim and that wouldn't have been a problem with them being vampires and all, but they had to carry Caroline the whole time. Needless to say, by the time they got close to the shore they were out of breath and it was dusk.

There were about ten yards from the shore standing in the shallow water when Stefan saw something move out of the corner of his eye.

"Elena, did you see that?" Stefan asked.

Moving closer to the shore, they heard something rustling around in the trees. They just didn't know where it was coming from.

"What is that?" Elena asked.

Farther into the jungle they could see palm trees falling, almost as if they were being forced down by something. Then a loud crash came, sounding like the bursting of a million lightbulbs. More and more trees started falling down around them, rapidly growing in quantity.

"Stefan, what is that?!" Elena shrieked.

All Stefan could do was stand there, shocked and scared at what he was seeing. When it finally registered to him that the sound was coming closer to them, he picked up Caroline and grabbed Elena's hand and started leading them away from the sound.

Then came another sound. This one was much more terrifying than the last. It sounded like the rattling of a snake mixed with the grinding cogs of a machine running. That was added with the snarl and low pitched groan of something more frightening than death itself.

All of the sudden, it stopped.

They stopped running, now that they were on the beach.

"Stefan, what the hell was that?" Elena said, her breath slowing down.

Stefan gently put Caroline down in the sand and sat down on a nearby log, remaining silent. He was still processing what just happened. His mind was racing with all the different possibilities of where or what that noise could have came from. He had thought that this was just an island, a simple island. An island that was safe for them to stay on while they waited to be rescued. He had never been more wrong. What were they going to do? They had nowhere else to go. There was no boat or plane or anything that could get them off the island. How were they going to survive as vampires with no blood around? There was no way Stefan or Elena was going to let anyone feed off Jeremy, Bonnie, or Katherine, if they even found them. Stefan's breath started to race as he thought of the inevitable doom they were headed towards.

Elena noticed he was starting to panic.

"Stefan? Stefan, what's wrong?" She said, her voice full of concern.

His head jerked straight up to look at her, making her jump a little in surprise.

"Elena, what are we going to do? How are we going to get off this island? How are we going to survive? There's no refrigerator full of blood bags for us to go to anytime we want. There's not humans around for us to even think about taking blood from. And I'm pretty damn sure we can't go into the jungle because whatever that thing is that just made that noise out there, does not sound friendly! Elena, what are we going to do? How are we-"

His cracking voice was cut off by the feeling of soft hands being placed on either side of his face. Elena moved his face towards her so he could look her in the eye.

"We'll be alright, Stefan. I know we will. We have to be," she said, cradling his head into her neck, running her fingers through his hair. That's what she always did to calm him down when they were together.

They sat there for quite a long time, embracing. It was an unusual experience for Elena. Stefan was usually the strong one. He was the one who always had everything figured out. The one who was there while others broke down in front of him. Never had Elena imagined that they would be in this situation, let alone her being the one to comfort him.

After awhile, Stefan stood up, wiping his tear stained eyes on his shirt.

"I'm going to go, um," he sniffed. "Find firewood. We're going to need it."

Elena stared at him kindly for a second before responding. "Okay. You know where to find me," she said with a small smile.

He started walking down the beach. He had to get away. He needed time to think to himself. What had just happened between him and Elena? They didn't normally do things like that. But then again, this wasn't a normal situation. He supposed he could have blamed it on the crash, but where would that have gotten him. Nowhere.

How could he have broken down in front of her like that? He was always the one to be strong in times of stress like this. He could only count on one hand the amount of times he had let Elena see him like that. Broken and small and vulnerable.

The thought of everything had became too overwhelming for him. The thought of dying after all this time of being alive. The thought of being trapped on this island. The thought of never seeing his brother again. It was too much. He didn't think he would have been able to handle it all.

But Elena was there. With her gentle hands and reassuring whispers, calming him down and bringing him back to reality. Her hands running through his hair, promising him there would be a tomorrow. She gave him hope when he thought there was none. She was there for him, physically and emotionally. She made him feel safe and loved, two things he thought he would never feel again.

All those thoughts running through his mind caused him to be oblivious to the ominous presence lurking behind him in the forest.

Fortunately enough, he was already on his way back to Elena.

* * *

A gasp came from below Elena. Caroline shot up and started coughing.

"Caroline! Are you okay?" Elena frantically asked.

"What happened? Where am I?" She questioned, moving her head back and forth trying to take in her surroundings.

Elena quickly tried to think of how to word what happened. She didn't want to put Caroline in too much shock seeing as she had only just woken up.

"Caroline… the plane crashed. We're on this island now and the others disappeared somewhere. I- I don't know where we are," Elena said gently.

"Oh my god…" Caroline seemed to be completely void of any reaction yet, she was just staring down at the sand. She looked completely pale.

At that point Stefan was just returning.

"Hey, I brought-," Stefan stopped short and dropped his firewood when he saw Caroline awake. He ran to her side.

"Caroline! Are you alright?" He said, pushing her hair from her face.

"No, I'm not. Guys… I remember what happened, before I passed out." Her face was empty of any color now and her breath started to quicken. "The others… Jeremy, Bonnie, and Katherine… they got… they got sucked out of the plane."

"What? What do you mean sucked out of the plane? What do you mean, Caroline?!" Elena asked, panic seeping into her voice. Tears started to trickle down her face.

"I don't know what it was. It came out of the dark…" She said with a shaky voice. "It was darkness itself. It grabbed them and pulled them out of the plane." Caroline's voice was trembling now. "Damon wasn't grabbed, but after they were taken he swam out of the plane to go after them… I don't know what happened to him."

Stefan stood up and looked down at them.

"We need to find them. Now."

* * *

It was dusk outside when they started their journey into the jungle. Stefan made a fire before they went in so they could all have a torch to light the way. All of them had their reservations about going into the jungle at night, but they decided their friends were more important than any fear they had.

Of course, after Stefan told Caroline about the noise they heard earlier, she hesitated even more. Ultimately, she decided that her fear didn't matter. She was a strong vampire, there was no way she was going to be afraid of some silly noise in the jungle. She was definitely not afraid, no way.

It was silent up until about thirty minutes into their hike. Who other than Caroline to break the silence?

"So like, what happened while I was passed out? You know, besides the creepy monster noise in the jungle, anything interesting?" She asked.

Stefan looked to Elena nervously. He was pleading with his eyes for her not to tell Caroline about his mental breakdown. Caroline would just start worrying about him and he didn't want to burden his best friend with his problems. They all had enough problems as it was.

"No, not really. We were just waiting for you to wake up," Elena said. She turned to give Stefan a smile. He mouthed a thank you at her.

"Oh, sorry I kept you waiting. You know I really don't know why I passed out like that. I mean I'm a vampire for god's sake. Maybe I hit my head when the plane went down? Or maybe it was just the stress? I heard that high stress situations can make you pass out. Even if you're a vampire. Okay, it didn't exactly say if you're a vampire, that would've been weird. But I'm just assuming. Why else would I have-,"

Caroline's rambling was cut off by a piercing scream.

They all turned their head sharply to where the scream came from. The beach.

"Bonnie!" Caroline and Elena shouted simultaneously.

Using their vampire speed, they ran back to the beach as fast as they could. When they got back, there was a problem.

There was no one there.

"No! I heard Bonnie scream, I know it was her!" Elena shouted. She started to run down the shore, past a wall made of huge boulders. Caroline and Stefan followed her, knowing she wasn't making any of it up.

When Stefan and Caroline got around the boulders they saw Elena. They also saw Jeremy and Bonnie. Katherine was nowhere to be seen.

They were all standing around something. Caroline walked up to them to see what it was all about. Stefan saw her gasp and close her hand over her mouth.

When Stefan walked a little closer he could see what they were huddled around.

A body.

He took another step closer and then he saw it. He fell to the ground, his knees hitting hard rock.

Damon was lying in front of him, his face shriveled and grey with a stake in his heart.

The noise from the jungle came once again, this time louder and even more shrill, telling them that the island was not what it seemed to be at all.


End file.
